Spending Time with God

The Power of Prayer

How powerful is prayer? We pray every day for certain things in our lives but do we really take prayer for what it really is? Do we think of prayer as being something powerful and from God or do we think it’s just something else a Christian does to kill time? Think about this for a while. Does God really hear my prayer? Is it really necessary in my Christian walk? I believe it is! It is very necessary for the Christian. Matthew 26:39-44 gives the example of the importance of prayer.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior gave us the greatest example on praying. Think about the situation that He is in. This is a difficult time in His life. The only thing He can do is go to the Father in prayer. I think about this a lot and I can’t help but wonder how bad He might have felt. How weak He had to have been that He had to turn to the Father for help? Here we see the Son of God asking for strength. It breaks my heart to think of His heartbreak, knowing that He had to go through what was prophesied. Scripture says he prayed; begging God for this not to happen. He begged for it to pass away. He prayed like any of us would if we were in this situation. He goes to God the Father as a child would go to his father for guidance. Jesus needed physical strength but more than anything He needed spiritual strength. I think of the tears He shed as He prays those powerful words, “…yet not as I will, but as you will.” This was not just some simple prayer He had rehearsed. This prayer had to do with everything that would happen for the rest of our lives. This prayer had everything to do with the salvation that we have today. What would have happened if Christ had chosen not to do what prophecy had foretold about Him? Not only would it mean that the prophecy was false but everything that we knew to be true from God would be false. I believe the prayer that Jesus prayed was answered by God on that night and the hours to come thereafter. Jesus knew His death was coming, He knew He was fulfilling prophecy, he knew it would be a horrific death, He knew it would be a long suffering death of the worse kind. I don’t think I will ever truly understand my Lord’s purpose in being the true and perfect sacrifice for our sins. I can’t understand why He had to go through so much suffering and torture just to end up with death on the cross. What I do know is that God guided Him through this time of struggle. Why? Because the prayer that Jesus prayed was a powerful prayer! His prayer had no limitations… God has no limitations.